SimCity Out Now and on Origin

Well.. the new SimCity is out and from the reviews it’s awesome but the actual people who bought it aren’t happy at all. If you look on Amazon there’s about 200 one star reviews and it’s climbing as people just aren’t happy with not being able to play the game they paid for. The Origin forums are also filled with complaints. I was going to go and grab this as I like SimCity but I think I’ll wait a while until things get straightened out.

After a 10-year hiatus and more than 23 years of inspiring and entertaining gamers, the king of city builders is back! Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today announced that SimCity™ is now available on PC at retail stores across North America and for digital download via Origin™. Winner of 26 PC best of show awards in 2012 and lauded in over 50 Most Anticipated of 2013 lists, the beloved city-building simulator is back with the series creators at Maxis™ and it’s delivering the most immersive and personal SimCity experience ever, where players can create and destroy the cities of their imaginations.

“For more than 23 years, SimCity has been inspiring future mayors and urban planners,” said Lucy Bradshaw, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA’s Maxis Label. “The new SimCity is powered by the most advanced simulation engine ever. It is more responsive and expansive than ever before. It is a SimCity where decisions you make at the local level will send rippling waves across an entire region of cities. Building on the core ethos of what made the original SimCity so powerful, this new SimCity is the game we have always dreamed of making.”

Everything is intelligently simulated in this new SimCity, from all of the Sims in a city, to every kilowatt of power pulsing through a region thanks to the powerful GlassBox Engine. It is the most expansive city management game yet where multi-city gameplay across regions delivers a larger playing field. No longer are players relegated to playing one single city, now they can manage and play up to 16 cities at once. Each city can have different specializations; they can share services and trade resources; they can help or even hinder each other; every decision a player makes in each city has impact in the broader region. It’s up to the player to decide where and how they play.

For the first time in the series multiplayer is added to the gameplay giving players a new dimension to the game, as decisions impact both the city and the region, creating new ways to play by collaborating or competing to earn achievements. Underpinning SimCity is a live service that simulates real-time updates and pushes them to players in the form of new challenges and achievements. Players will track their progression alongside their friends and the world for the most polluted city, the richest city and more. Whether players play by themselves, with their friends or with the rest of the world, SimCity will challenge players to create the city of their dreams answer the question – what kind of mayor will you be?

SimCity has been rated E10+ by the ESRB. For more information regarding SimCity, please visit www.SimCity.com. SimCity for Mac will be available in spring 2013. Players who purchase the SimCity Limited Edition* on Origin.com will get the Heroes and Villains set plus the Origin-exclusive item, Plumbob Park for their game. Press assets for SimCity are available at www.info.ea.com.